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Sometimes you read the description of an arrangement and wonder how on earth it could possibly work. When I first discovered today’s arrangement, I was skeptical about hearing a metal cover of a Kirby Super Star track. When I think of the music of Kirby games, I usually imagine something bright, energetic, and upbeat. However, I usually like to give something an opportunity to surprise me and today’s arrangement has done just that.
“The Savior of Dreamland” is an orchestral metal arrangement of “Coliseum Battle” by frequent OC Remix contributor Sixto Sounds. Sixto has a reputation for creating some truly impressive arrangements of videogame tunes. The original track plays in the Arena mode of Kirby Super Star, which is that game’s boss rush mode. It’s all about battling big baddies, so perhaps the match up of metal in this arrangement isn’t as far fetched as I’d initially thought.
The piece starts of quietly with a lone guitar, but charges up straight into distorted guitar riffs of the main chord progression. A lead guitar comes in with the melody and for a while it sounds like this will be a straight forward electric guitar cover. However, at 1’31” brass and strings enter in to join the rhythm guitar as harmonic back-up. The affect of this is a metal arrangement that has a strong flamenco flavor to it. Quite an appropriate tone for music from a battle arena. You can almost picture Kirby as a bull fighter entering the ring to face his opponents.
The orchestral instruments don’t take a back seat for this arrangement either. At 2’30” a trumpet takes over the melody for the guitar. Eventually the piece returns to a mostly electric guitar mix, with Sixto Sounds performing some impressive lead solo work before concluding the arrangement. An impressive interpretation, that surprisingly finds a way to stay true to the source material and delivers an excellent listening experience.
Have you discovered any surprising metal interpretations of your favorite game music? Let us know in the comments below. You can check out Sixto Sounds’ “The Savior of Dream Land” on OC Remix [2].